Well everyone, this is the final day of this 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.

These past 30 days went by so darn quickly. Some days I was psyched to get into it, some days it felt like a chore to complete, but all in all it was so, so amazing. Mostly, it was amazing because it really helped guide the 30 days of my thoughts, emotions and overall excitement in getting to marry the best guy on planet earth; it helped push me to continue creating, sharing my work with you all and really carrying on a long & daunting series through the finish line.

I'm so thankful for all of the support and love shown to me throughout this series from friends, supporters, and family members - without you rooting for me day in and day out, it would've been so easy to just let this project fall by the wayside. You all continued to remind me that I currently have a unique story to put into the universe, to share and to grow through my experience to help others do the same.

Most importantly, I thank my best friend and love in the entire world, Jose. Without his beautiful encouragement, his daily affirmations, and for his excitement to put my work out into the world, this (my career, this series and life in general) would be impossible. Other than in class and until recently, he was the only person in the world to ever see me working in action, and I loved the cocoon we built for ourselves and shared with each other in that creative space. I trust you completely, and I'm so thrilled "to get hitched" (cue his laugh because I finally used his phrase and didn't roll my eyes) to you in a mere 4 days.

Jose, amorcito, te amo 'para siempre.' A lifetime of gracias will never be enough.

Appropriately enough and just in our procrastinating style, Jose and I came up with the subject for this last painting 2 minutes before I painted it and a second before his Uber showed up to take him to his bachelor party. You guessed it, they're our wedding rings in the stunning red box they came in. I attempted to capture the plush white pillow and the bright red case, keeping the rings as the main focus of the painting. This is easily one of my favorites, and I honestly think I'm going to keep this one in my "forever repertoire" (aka, our living room wall) forever.

Make sure to follow along the journey, past/present/future, of these 30 paintings through my Instagram (@britvaldezstudio) and this portfolio, as I have a few goodies to share with you all in the next month or two (*cough cough* show(s), an inclusive look into the series, and more *cough cough*). I will also continue working on my series of larger works alongside working on a few backed up commissions (read through the entire blog on this series to understand why I had to put them on backorder). Finally, please keep in touch! I love to hear from you guys in any way, shape or form.

We finally made it late last night after a droning 7 hour drive down the I-5. Yay 95F weather!!

Jose was the DJ and we listened to all of my middle school and high school CDs, including Blink 182, Daddy Yankee and UK Pop Hits 1999. The best when you're driving past Buttonwillow (a city with a name we literally died laughing over) and tumbleweed after tumbleweed.

I felt like painting this candle and posting it the day before the final painting on this challenge for a few reasons. Back in May, we attended an "Engaged Encounter Retreat" (partially mandatory by our marriage prep class with the church). We went into the retreat super drained from finding a church, priest and venue for our wedding, and just needed a break. This weekend was exactly what we needed with tons of talks and with about 15 love letters written between Jose and I in 48 hours. We absolutely loved it.

The final night of the retreat, we were tasked to light a candle together and write a couple's prayer, a prayer that can also be recited during our wedding mass. Although I won't post the prayer just yet (I'll wait until after the wedding date to share with everyone), I will say that it was totally us, pretty poetic (very proud of ourselves for that), and just beautiful. We said the prayer together aloud over our flame, and blew out the candle once completed.

We plan on lighting candle for an hour long for every wedding anniversary we have together (it's supposed to burn for 50 hours, so at our 50th wedding anniversary we will have to replace!) and reciting our prayer every year as well to remind us of our vows and our love (so cute). I just had to paint it for the significance of it, and to remind us of what it looked like before it burned for a few times a few years in.

Oh my gosh so much to pack and so much to do. Jose will be back on Monday for the full work week, but I won't be back home for 3 weeks. That's a ton of packing for different climates, celebrations, places, humidity levels...

The bed is completely covered with clothing and objects from my entire closet and dresser drawers. It's unreal.

With everything going on, my sleep has been all over the place. Some days I'm completely drained and sleep a full 8 hours. Some days I have so much on my mind that I don't sleep until 2:30am (or even 6am, see previous post with a painting on that night). Funny enough, I forget that ZzzQuil is a thing and that I can take it to help me sleep (I stay away from melatonin unless I'm intending on sleeping at that hour for days on end). It came especially useful during the morning I couldn't sleep until 6am (I always think about that, and I have no clue what got into me), when I took it and slept for 6 hours and barely got anything done when I woke up.

Needless to say, ZzzQuil is my savior in so many situations: on airplanes when I can't sleep vertically, during wedding planning when so much is on my mind, when work gets intense and I have a ton of things on my to do list, when there is someone playing super loud South Park with their window open so the atrium echoes (happened last night).

This little purple cutie helped so much to make sure I slept in order to not get sick before the big day, so it just had to document it's majesty through a painting.

The next time I post I will be in Los Angeles! Until then, after this looming 7 hour drive ahead.